PARENT: NHL deal close, but Gary Bettman, Donald Fehr lurking

By ROB PARENT

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

If not for Twitter, how would anyone following the "progress" of the NHL contract talks with its players union know when one person or another involved in the negotiations would be taking either a dinner or bathroom break?

Aside from on-the-spot reports from hotel rest rooms by journalists who normally specialize in the art of play-by-play, only a small amount of real news has leaked out the past two nights from the Westin Times Square, the hotel where rich men and poor men and women have only a closed meeting room door separating them.

Apparently, the dolts who decide how to run things every eight to 10 years or so, when the NHL tries to implode, figure that with a full two months of the season burned and counting, it's time to stop sniping at each other through the media and actually sit down and talk.

You know, between buffets.

Ah, but danger lurks around every mezzanine floor corner, since it's always possible that the progress made the past two days in these talks can be poisoned by a couple of shadowy figures -- commissioner Gary Bettman and union leader Donald Fehr. The idea, apparently, is keeping hope alive by keeping them out of the bargaining ballroom.

Unless those two foaming-at-the-mouth figureheads figure out another way to screw it up, it appears Sidney Crosby -- who every Philadelphia fan secretly admires as the best player in the world -- has deemed it appropriate to act as a hammer in an honest attempt to bang out an agreement. Oh, and to find a creative way to mask the truth, which is the players are close to caving yet again.

So as the NHL lockout passed its 81st day, it started to become clear that at some point an agreement to "save the season" really can be reached. Maybe it didn't overnight, and maybe it won't by Friday. But the makings of a real deal are on the table (though not for the first time, if you ask a lot of insiders), and we may be mere weeks from kicking off a 56-game or so regular season.

Just like in 1995, when they went 48 games over the course of about three months before the playoffs, it'll be an intense 2013 winter-into-spring ride, with teams playing three to four games a week, and with more hamstrings snapping, ligaments crackling and groins a-poppin' than ever before.

It'll create a playoff that will be nothing more than a chaotic mess of injury-burdened teams fighting each other and fighting through exhaustion to see if they can survive four more rounds.

Sounds awful.

But it would be beautiful to watch. You know, until the next implosion comes along.

If they don't implode this week, that is.

o

This just in: Joe Blanton -- two years, $15 million from the Angels.

Read that again, then consider it a prime candidate for the Winter Meetings' Ridiculousness Award. But I'll still take Shane Victorino's heist in Boston (3 years, $39 million) as the leader.

o

Hey, since time is clearly running out on a favorite hobby of mine, please allow me just one more time to write some of my favorite local sports phrases:

"Time's yours."

"Listen ..."

"Gotta do a better job."

"We look forward to the challenge of playing (insert winning team here)."

Ah, much better. Thanks.

o

Anyway, about Andy Reid ... His Redness told his adoring media public Wednesday that while he really is looking forward to the challenge of playing the Buccaneers, there is plenty for his Eagles to watch out for.

Listen, Reid said before declaring this about the Bucs: "They're a 6-6 football team, (a) good football team and we'll get a good week of preparation in and get ourselves ready to play against a good football team."

Really, what more do you need to know?

l l l

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: It's from newly named starting quarterback for the rest of the season Nick Foles, who looks more like an NFL quarterback every week, even if he still looks like a frat house plebe. But his sound is purely professional: "I think just staying true to who I am," Foles said when asked about the task of balancing his rookie status with his new leadership role. "In any position, don't try to be something you're not. I'm just going to be me."